We’ve all been there. Frantically surfing through WebMD reading about symptoms we don’t have, feeling the onset of a mini panic attack.
Millennials are impatient about their information. If we have a potential health condition, we need to know all about it and ASAP. Doctor’s appointments take forever and when they do happen, we don’t get enough time to have all the information we need.
This increasing customer urgency and need for in-depth information has led the healthcare industry to embrace the power of explainer videos.
Be it exploring treatment options, discussing diagnoses, or understanding digital health technology, explainer videos are becoming a significant part of health marketing and communication.
This blog post discusses how doctors and patients can make use of healthcare explainer videos. It delves into what makes healthcare explainers so popular, things to consider while producing them, and our pick of some of the best healthcare videos for your inspiration.
10 uses of healthcare explainer videos
Explainer videos are used in the healthcare industry to describe:
1. Preventive measures
If you’re a responsible healthcare organization, your job is not just to facilitate the patients but to prevent people from becoming ill in the first place.
Responsible healthcare marketing requires you to promote healthy practices and educate people on how they can avoid catching a disease.
Explainer videos are a persuasive medium that can easily grab people’s attention, raise awareness. and convince them to be more vigilant against a disease.
Here’s an awareness video from the WHO:
2. Disease symptoms
48% of young adults refer to online resources to search for their symptoms. Once they do, they’re bombarded with a host of written information from different sources.
The plethora of knowledge available and the potentially unnerving nature of the symptoms can leave the audience overwhelmed.
Explainer videos are a great way to condense the information into a neatly presented package. Instead of sending the audience into a state of alarm at once, explainer videos can use a stage-wise linear progression in describing the symptoms.
That way the audience can know where they stand with more certainty and be cautious about changes to look out for.
3. Nature of the disease
Sometimes patients know what their disease is called and what it does to them but don’t fully understand its nature. For instance, some diseases might be genetic, some may be due to autoimmunity or environmental factors.
Giving the patients a full view of their disease is vital for proper management, choosing the right treatment option, and peace of mind.
Animated videos help healthcare professionals explain the different complex aspects of a disease in a simplified manner.
Check out this video brought to you by U.S. National Library of Medicine
4. Living with a disease
Healthcare advertising needs to be centered around making people’s lives easier. Once patients are diagnosed with a disease, they need guidance on how to readjust or modify their lives. This is especially true for people with chronic illnesses.
Explainer videos form an amazing resource for calming the patients down, reassuring an optimum lifestyle, and helping them manage their disease.
These could include views from other patients, referral to support groups, information about healthcare services that facilitate people with a certain disease, or simply how to manage relationships while having an illness.
5. How medication works
A major part of living with a disease is managing and understanding how different medications work. For instance, it’s vital for patients with Type 1 Diabetes to understand how insulin works to manage their doses according to their food intake.
However, not everyone is equipped to understand molecular chemistry and biology. Explainer videos help you visualize such complex processes usually through animation.
6. Frequently asked questions
Patient anxiety leads to numerous questions about their illness. If left unanswered or not dealt with effectively they can lead to poor decision making and added stress on the patient’s part.
Moreover, an inability to answer patients’ frequently asked questions can also have a negative effect on your business. People usually like to go to the doctors and other healthcare resources that make them feel heard and address their concerns patiently (no pun intended).
It is always a good idea to make a comprehensive list of patient FAQs and answer them through an explainer video.
It’s a one-off investment that can address common concerns in depth and save a lot of time as you won’t have to repeatedly answer the same questions.
Here’s a vibrant video targeted at kids to help them understand what an MRI is:
7. Patient and device management
Healthcare videos are not just directed towards the patients. They’re also used to educate doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals.
They usually cover topics on how to treat and manage patients, how to operate different medical devices or other standard operating procedures within a healthcare organization.
As digital health solutions become increasingly sophisticated new apps are introduced to help medical professionals optimize their processes. Videos explaining how to use such apps are also gaining popularity.
Moreover, 72% of the audience prefers watching training/tutorial videos compared to reading training material.
Medical students are no different. They can benefit greatly from the use of explainer videos as they simplify concepts and increase retention as compared to conventional textbook learning.
In addition to educational purposes, healthcare explainer videos can also be used as a tool for:
8. Thought leadership
When people’s lives are at stake establishing trust in your brand is vital for the success of your business.
Explainer videos are a great medium to establish credibility in the healthcare industry by demonstrating your knowledge of the field.
9. Customer connection
At the end of the day, the healthcare industry is also a business that is extremely competitive. It relies on the number of customers to thrive.
What sets you apart from the competition is building better connections with the audience.
Explainer videos make information easily accessible to your customers and help you adopt a customer-first approach.
People are more likely to have an affinity towards a brand that makes an effort to solve a problem rather than making a sales pitch.
10. Uniform internal communication
New treatments, medical equipment, and standard operating procedures are regularly introduced within the medical field.
By using explainer videos, you can ensure that employees at all levels are up to speed about the updated processes and avoid potential incidents.
Related: Enhancing Internal Communications through Video – a Guide
5 considerations for making an impactful healthcare explainer video
If you’re wondering how to make an explainer video for the healthcare industry, the process is essentially the same as any other type of explainer.
However, there are some things to keep in mind to create an impactful message.
1. Exhibit empathy
Understand that your audience is in a vulnerable state. They might be feeling anxious and in need of some reassurance. In a lot of cases, people turn towards digital resources when they are not satisfied with their physician’s way of dealing with things.
Being compassionate and empathetic in your healthcare explainer videos is vital. Your audience is looking for someone to address all of their concerns and acknowledge their struggle.
Make sure that your script and voiceover caters to that and adopts an informative and helpful tone of voice.
2. Keep it light
A lot of healthcare explainers make use of humor appeal to deal with taboo or sensitive healthcare topics. It’s a great way to answer questions that people are often too reluctant to ask.
You should also adopt a positive and hopeful tone of voice while presenting information regarding chronic illnesses.
However, you do not want to come off as insensitive by sounding extra chipper or be a downer and add to their stress. This is a tough balance to achieve in many healthcare videos.
This is why it’s always best to refer to a video marketing agency that has professional scriptwriters.
Related: Why Explainer Videos Need a Killer Script
3. Choose the right format
Understand the demographics of your audience and what type of video format resonates with them the most.
For instance, your audience is children, and young adult’s animated explainer videos might be the way to go. Elder people might feel more comfortable with live-action testimonials. Working mothers may prefer a whiteboard animation with a step by step guide to save time.
The right video format is key to making your message more effective.
Related: Live-Action or Animated Explainer Video? Our Answer May Surprise You
4. No to jargon
The whole point of creating explainer videos is to simplify complex phenomena and make information easier to consume. Using medical jargon, however, can have a counterproductive effect.
Whether your audience is patients, healthcare professionals, or students, while making a healthcare explainer video think in terms of the audience and use simple language.
You can always use examples or metaphors to make things easier to understand.
5. Give it time
It is a general rule of thumb to keep explainers short and to the point. However, the audience of the healthcare industry might prefer longer explainer videos.
This is again due to the fact that they’re looking for in-depth descriptions and comprehensive answers to their questions.
So, don’t be afraid to go beyond a couple of minutes if it means satisfying your audience.
5 best examples of healthcare explainer videos
1. Kurzgesagt – The coronavirus explained
The Covid-19 pandemic has come with a side of an infodemic. Rumors, speculations, and false information about the disease have made it hard for people to understand it.
This animated video is a combined effort by Kurzgesagt and “Our World in Data” to explain the Coronavirus in depth.
The video offers the context of the virus’s inception, its working in the human body down to the cellular level, its effects on society and the healthcare system and discusses preventive measures.
It’s essentially the world’s FAQs packed into an aesthetically pleasing and engaging audiovisual. Notice how it takes over 8 minutes but there’s never a dull moment in the video!
2. Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America – IBD syndrome
Let’s face it, no one wants to talk about the workings of their digestive system. This is why patients of an IBD might hesitate to start a conversation with their physician and peers about how to effectively manage the disease.
This video takes ‘keeping things light’ to the next level in a good way. The creative execution and use of humor appeal help creators discuss the not so pleasant experience of living with an IBD.
It presents several helpful resources, discusses better decision making, and having a social life with an IBD in a relatable way.
“Well, you just finished your first year of college.” The script is carefully written to reassure the audience that a normal and successful life is possible with an IBD.
3. Pfizer – Understanding chronic pain
Chronic aches and pains are a common occurrence in adulthood. But who would’ve thought that they come in so many forms? Knowing what type of pain you have is the first step towards treating it.
This explainer video is an extremely helpful guide on understanding the nature of chronic pains and how to effectively describe them to a physician.
Since pain is intangible it can be hard to describe it to another person. By using animation, the producers have creatively visualized different types of pains. The video also uses relatable examples and metaphors to help people identify the kind of pain they have.
Empathy is established from the get-go as the narrator describes the different ways chronic pain affects people’s lives. He maintains a positive and helpful tone of voice and gives the audience hope for a painless life.
4. QardioMD – Digital health
Healthcare professionals all over the world are overworked as the doctor to patient ratio in most countries is unbalanced. This means that doctors are not able to fully cater to their patients as they’d like to.
Advances in technology have led to digital health solutions like QardioMD that are designed to ease workload and streamline the medical processes.
This explainer video helps doctors understand how to use the QardioMD app to optimize their doctor-patient interaction with help of data logs.
The video straight up presents the problem and dives into the solution which is presented through clean and minimal illustrations.
A look into the screencast of the app’s dashboard also gives the users an idea of the kind of platform they’re dealing with.
5. NHMMRC – Clinical trial participant
Choosing a treatment option for certain diseases can be a difficult process as there are pros and cons to be considered on all sides.
Sometimes people need to hear from previous patients to see what resonates with them and to make an informed decision.
In this video, David, a patient suffering from myeloma walks the audience through the process and benefits of getting a trial stem cell treatment.
The video has a calming feel with soft piano playing in the background. The visuals are also carefully executed to highlight how David is living a considerably good life.
“Every day I look for ways to find positives in the otherwise bad things that define cancer.” The script also works to motivate the audience to find the willpower to keep moving forward.
In a nutshell
If you’re a business from the healthcare industry, explainer videos are the newest marketing tool you should be working to your advantage.
Whether your audiences are medical professionals, patients, or their families, explainer videos will help you raise awareness, offer simplified solutions, and build lasting connections.
Healthcare messages need to be crafted carefully. They need to be informative, positive, and lighthearted to make an impact on the audience.
In the market for a healthcare video? We at MotionCue specialize in creating highly converting explainer videos for all industries. Get in touch with us here.
